Digital Marketing Agencies Are Going Virtual with Remote Employees

Business is booming for small & mid-sized digital marketing agencies. They are innovating by going virtual and hiring remote employees to beat an extremely tight labor market with limited supply of local talent.

August 13, 2018 / / —

Louisville, KY – August 8, 2018 – Hivedesk, a leading time tracking software for remote employees, surveyed over 40 digital marketing agencies in the US to identify their top challenges and how they plan to overcome them.

While demand for digital marketing services continues to rise, the supply of talent has not kept pace. Digital marketing is a labor intensive industry. Despite the recent spurt in use of bots and artificial intelligence, agencies still rely on people to do the heavy lifting. But in a tight labor market with historically low unemployment rates, finding right talent at the right price is difficult. In fact, it is one of the biggest challenge faced by small and mid-sized digital marketing agencies. Every single company in the survey reported it as one of the top two challenges.

Key findings:

The survey found that smaller agencies are responding by hiring remote employees to beat talent crunch in their local markets and to stay ahead of competition. Here is a summary of the findings:

Digital marketing agencies are unable to find talent in many local markets, forcing them to hire employees in another city or country
20% (or 1 in 5) of agencies said they have gone 100% virtual, meaning all of their employees work remotely
Over 80% of agencies experienced higher productivity by using remote workforce
All respondents experienced significant savings on office related costs when using remote employees

Companies in the survey said working remotely is a win-win for both employer and employees. Employers can hire the best talent irrespective of location and save on office expenses. Employees get flexible work schedule and a better work-life balance.

Though hiring remote employees has its advantages, it also brings a new set of challenges. The survey identified best practices used by agencies that reported best results from their remote workforce:

Hire right employees since not everyone is cut out to be a remote worker
Clearly define expectations from your remote employee
Regularly track progress of remote workers
Communicate frequently and clearly
Measure performance and benchmark with others